Heroics
by Qweb
Summary: A murderous attack on Pepper Potts leaves one Avenger critically injured and the rest looking for answers — and revenge. Features the team from my story collection "A Very Good Team." Will feature all the Avengers, but no Coulson.
1. Attack

_A murderous attack on Pepper Potts leaves one Avenger critically injured and the rest looking for answers — and revenge. Features the team from my story collection "A Very Good Team."_

_A/N: Takes place before Coulson's reappearance._

**Heroics**

**Chapter 1: Attack**

Pepper Potts left Stark Industries offices in Avengers Tower for a lunch meeting at her favorite bistro just around the corner.

Half a block from the main exit, she was swarmed by a mass of reporters shouting questions about Tony Stark's latest escapade. They were yelling, shoving, jostling. Pepper was used to the media, but this was frighteningly aggressive behavior. And then Pepper realized she didn't know any of the pushy reporters surrounding her. Not one … single … person. Furthermore, none of them held a notebook or microphone and only one had a camera.

Now Pepper was really frightened. "Leave me alone. Help! Help!" she shouted.

Passersby were uncertain. Most dodged away from the bellicose mob. A few pulled out cellphones to report the trouble. One businessman protested the unseemly behavior and was knocked to the ground and kicked for his efforts.

Then a blond juggernaut plowed into the crowd.

Dressed anonymously in gray sweats, Steve Rogers had left Avengers Tower by the employee entrance. He was jogging on the next block when his serum-enhanced hearing picked up a cry for help. He was already running flat out when he recognized the voice.

He bulled into the crowd, shoving people aside to get to his friend. He only used a fraction of his strength, because he thought he was dealing with overzealous reporters, until he reached Pepper. She clung to his safe solidity gratefully and panted that she thought they were fakes.

Steve spun to face the enemy, putting Pepper behind him. He saw a man lift a camera. Expecting the flash of sunlight on the lens, he was surprised to see a hole, more like a gun barrel, pointed at his friend's face.

As the man's finger pressed the shutter, Steve's hand shot out to grab the camera. A steel dart three inches long struck deep into his palm instead of Pepper's face.

It burned like a hot coal, but ignoring pain was one of Captain America's strengths. He continued his attack, crushing the camera in his powerful hand, not caring that the action drove the spike deeper until it protruded from the back of his hand.

The burning began to dissolve into numbness. Not good. Steve had to finish this fast. He spun, holding the camera at arm's length, using it to club down anyone within reach. Three men fell. The others took to their heels as the wail of approaching police cars was drowned by the roar of Iron Man's repulsors. Summoned by Jarvis, Hawkeye and Black Widow ran from the building, but the crowd was scattered now. No one could tell the fleeing attackers from the terrified bystanders.

The numbness spread up Steve's arm, into his throat. He began to wheeze, reminded of the old days when pneumonia had nearly claimed his small, asthmatic body. The numbness roared like an express train down his spine. His legs wobbled. He fell awkwardly, almost comically, on his behind.

"Steve!" Pepper exclaimed.

Tony Stark turned from making sure she was unhurt. "Steve, are you all right?"

Steve couldn't answer. His face was numb. His jaw wouldn't work. With eyes huge, baffled and frightened, all he could do was hold out his wounded palm, like a toddler showing a thorn in his hand.

Tony bit back a curse when he saw the dart, now driven clear through Steve's hand. A sticky red coating glistened ominously.

"Jarvis, what is that?"

"The primary component appears to be curare, sir," the AI analyzed the film.

Curare, that was poison. That was bad, Steve thought dimly, as the numbness reached his brain and everything went dark.

**To be continued**


	2. Curare Cocktail

**Chapter 2: Curare Cocktail**

Steve looked like a corpse, Bruce Banner thought uncomfortably. He lay awfully still with muscles so rigid from the paralytic poison that it reminded Bruce of rigor mortis. Only Steve's chest rose and fell, pumped up and down by the hissing ventilator.

He looked dead, but he wasn't and he wouldn't die as long as the machine kept him breathing, Bruce explained to the white-faced Pepper Potts who looked almost as rigid as her rescuer.

"This poison has a base of curare with a few other nasty surprises mixed in to cause muscle contractions and paralysis. Curare paralyzes the voluntary muscles. It doesn't stop the heart but does stop breathing. Even a normal, unenhanced person would survive a dose of curare as long as the doctors can keep him breathing until he metabolizes the poison."

"Some doctor proved it about a hundred years ago using a donkey and a bellows," Tony said, putting his hands on Pepper's shoulders. "So don't worry, Pep. Steve will be fine."

Bruce added his reassurance. "Steve's body is burning off this … curare cocktail very fast. He should recover in a matter of hours."

"Let me take you home," Tony urged.

"No." Pepper hadn't taken her eyes on Steve's still form.

"You can't do anything here," Tony argued quietly.

"I can be here," Pepper answered. "I'm not leaving him alone."

"He's Captain America. He'll be fine," Tony said. He felt twitchy thinking how close she'd come to dying. If Steve hadn't stopped the dart, Pepper would have died before rescue arrived. Tony wanted her home, where he knew she would be safe.

Pepper looked at him angrily, but softened when she saw the fear in his eyes. She rubbed her cheek against his hand, but didn't stand up.

"Pepper, three other businesspeople were attacked this afternoon. You were the only one who survived. We need to get you home and safe," Tony pleaded.

"This is SHIELD. I'm as safe here as anywhere," she reminded him. "Is he awake, Bruce?" she asked.

He glanced at the readings. "No. He's asleep now."

"Will he wake up before the curare wears off?"

"Possibly."

"Then I'm not leaving him alone while he's … frozen like this." Her voice dropped to a whisper when she said "frozen," as if to prevent the man out of time from hearing.

Tony and Bruce exchanged alarmed glances, because they hadn't looked at it that way.

Pepper pulled her blazer tighter around her. Hospitals always seemed chilly. She unfolded a blanket and gently spread it over Steve, trying to avoid all the tubes. "And get someone to turn up the damned heat," she ordered.

Tony tilted his head at Bruce who nodded and obeyed Pepper's command. The billionaire gently kissed his true love's temple.

"All right, Mama Bear. You look after Cap. We've got terrorists to find."

"How? Everyone ran off."

Tony gave her smirk No. 23, the one that told her he'd done something illegal and didn't repent it. "I may have made off with a piece of evidence before the cops got there."

"Evidence?"

"One of the guys Steve hit was still alive, though he's got a camera-shaped bruise on his forehead. Now he's locked in the Tower under guard, unless Natasha is as pissed as you are about Steve getting hurt. For a quiet guy, Cap sure is a ladies man."

"Shouldn't you leave the investigation to the government?" Pepper asked. Now she was getting worried.

"No, no and no. In the first place, SHIELD is government and we have Fury's blessing. Second," He glanced at Steve and said grimly. "We're Avengers. We have some avenging to do."

"And third?"

He kissed her, tenderly with restrained passion, then he whispered an inch from her lips. "Third, no one messes with my girlfriend and lives to brag about it."

* * *

After Tony left, Pepper pulled a chair close to the bed and took Steve's unnaturally stiff hand in hers.

"I thought she was Iron Man's girlfriend," a physician's assistant whispered to a nurse. "Is she banging Captain America, too?"

"I feel sorry for you." The voice behind him made the young man jump. He looked back to see Bruce behind him, brown eyes flaring green for a moment before the scientist controlled himself with an effort. "Pepper loves Steve like a brother. If you think love and sex are synonymous, you will have a very lonely life."

The PA turned back to the nurse, who slugged his arm hard enough to leave a bruise. "He saved her life. Isn't that enough reason for her to sit with him?" she asked.

Bruce went to Pepper. "I'll be in the lab testing Steve's blood, making sure the serum keeps metabolizing the poison. Call if you need me, but I'm sure he'll be fine. Everything is proceeding as expected."

Pepper watched the incomprehensible readings fluctuate on the medical equipment. She wondered if she would know if Steve woke up.

When all the alarms went wild, she knew.

_A/N: Um, next chapter we go to the other Avengers and their investigation. We won't get back to Steve until chapter 5, but Pepper is with him. He'll be fine, right?_

_Oh, and the curare, donkey, bellows story is true._


	3. Frozen

_A/N: Remember I said last time that you wouldn't see Steve until Chapter 5? Well, I remembered I gave Pepper all the plot exposition. You won't understand what the others are talking about without this chapter, so the investigation begins next time. Here's more Steve and Pepper._

**Chapter 3: Frozen**

Steve woke to a nightmare, wondering if he was awake at all. He couldn't move. He couldn't see. He was trapped, trapped in the ice still. Avengers, Chitauri, SHIELD all a taunting dream.

His heart thumped frantically. His breath came faster, pumping in and out of a tube down his throat. What was that? That wasn't part of the ice.

Then he realized he wasn't cold. He was comfortably warm and there was a particularly warm and welcome sensation in his hand, until it moved away.

Steve would have whimpered if he could have, but the warmth moved to his face, cradling his cheeks. And then he finally heard the words over the hissing pump.

"Steve. Steve. It's Pepper. Calm down. You're in SHIELD Medical. You've been poisoned, but you're going to be OK. Bruce said your body is already throwing off the poison. You just have to be patient."

Pepper. It was Pepper. The name, the voice brought it all back, the attack, the dart. Curare. He remembered.

Steve would have wept with relief if he could have. He wasn't back in the ice. The Avengers were real.

He tried to follow Pepper's instructions. Slowing his breathing, which slowed the frantic pounding of his heart.

Shrill beeping noises died down. The hissing wheeze of the breathing pump eased. Now Steve could hear more. He heard Pepper: "I think you can take out the breathing tube now."

"Yes, it's obvious he's breathing on his own again," a new voice said. The voice moved closer. "Captain, I am Dr. Imayanagita. I am going to pull the tube out. It will be uncomfortable, but breathe out and it will be over quickly."

The sensation would have been very unpleasant, if Steve hadn't been numb all over. Then relief with the tape and tube gone.

"Can you open your eyes?"

Steve tried valiantly, but achieved a mere flutter.

"That's all right," the doctor soothed. "You're doing fine. You're improving with every minute. I am going to touch your face now and raise your eyelids to check your pupil reaction. The light may seem very bright, but I will be quick."

A gentle touch on his face, then Bright! And Bright again! Steve's breath huffed out in protest. The doctor let the eyelids close again.

"Still dilated, but reactive." He felt a pat on his shoulder. "This must be unnerving, but you are improving by leaps and bounds."

Unnerving was an inadequate word, like doctors calling excruciating pain "discomfort." Steve was terrified by his immobility, but warmth enveloped his hand again.

"I'm here, Steve," Pepper said. "I won't leave you alone. You should rest. Go back to sleep."

The very idea made Steve tense.

Pepper laughed with delight. "I felt that. I felt your arm muscle tighten. You are getting better."

Somehow Pepper's words were more reassuring than the doctor's.

"I'll talk for a while, then. I should tell you what happened," Pepper said. "The attack on me wasn't the only one." Her voice broke. "Three other businesspeople were attacked in the same way, by a mob pretending to be reporters. I knew them all, Steve. They were good people, genuinely charitable. Phoebe Langston was a good friend. They didn't have Captain America to save them. They all died right away, so did a medical student who tried to help Carl. He cut his finger on the poisoned dart. Four dead, Steve. Four. We think two other attacks were foiled because the targets didn't leave their buildings on schedule. At least, we assume they were targets. Samantha and Conrad are on the same charity boards as the rest of us. Sam was delayed by a call from her daughter who is in college. Conrad had some business crisis come up so he ordered lunch in."

Steve wondered how the Avengers knew about the ambushes if they didn't happen. Pepper felt him tense again and divined his thoughts.

"Tony figured it out. He's almost as clever as he thinks he is," she joked. "When he heard about the other three attacks, he used crowd sourcing to see if any Avengers fans had noticed odd groups of people waiting around office buildings."

This was pretty much gibberish to Steve — except for the part about Tony being clever, which was a given. Steve tried stiffening his muscles to catch Pepper's attention.

"Oh, I suppose that doesn't mean much to you. You know how some people are on their cellphones all the time?" She laughed. "Like me," she confessed. "Well, some of them — a lot of them — follow any chitchat about the Avengers. So Tony sent out a message to this 'crowd,' asking for help. He got a lot of responses, but Jarvis saw there was a pattern focusing on two buildings, so SHIELD and the police went. Groups scattered as soon as the police arrived. It was impossible to tell the lurkers from the frightened bystanders. But you knocked out one of the men who was pestering me. Tony, Thor, Clint and Natasha have him. (Bruce is here, running tests on your blood to make sure the serum is fighting the poison.) Tony and the others are looking for the men who did this."

They'll get answers, Steve thought. He hoped so. He didn't want Pepper to be in danger again.

"Tony's angry," Pepper said softly.

They'll definitely get answers, Steve thought with relief.

Pepper continued her distracting chatter and Steve relaxed enough to go back to sleep.

Pepper saw the readings slow. She gently brushed Steve's hair off his forehead, sat back more comfortably in her chair and continued her wait.

_A/N: The rest of the Avengers next time. And things start to get weird._


	4. Interrogation

**Chapter 4: Interrogation**

Wearing the Iron Man armor with the faceplate open, Tony confronted the survivor of Steve's attack. Brawny arms crossed, Thor glowered from in front of the door. Dressed in ominous black and twirling knives, Natasha and Clint prowled around the prisoner's chair, making him nervous every time they passed behind him.

The prisoner — whose ID read Andrew Garth — was really frightened to find himself facing the Avengers, but he tried to bluster.

"It was a prank, man, a flash mob. All we were supposed to do was hassle the rich bit…"

Garth suddenly found himself out of the chair and pressed against the wall with Iron Man's hand at his throat.

"That's my girlfriend you're talking about," Tony snarled.

The prisoner clawed helplessly at the metal gauntlet.

"Stark!" Thor barked, then said more gently, "Stark, this is not the way to make him speak."

He put his hand on Iron Man's arm. Silently, Tony lowered the man to his feet. The man panted.

"Have you regained your breath?" Thor asked him.

"Yes."

"Good." Thor's huge hand swooped down, grabbed the prisoner by his ankle and hoisted him in the air upside-down.

"This way there is no impediment to him speaking," Thor explained to Tony, dangling the man easily.

The others had to agree it was effective. In addition to the head rush and the fear, gravity tended to pull the free leg down, pulling painfully at the crotch of Garth's too-tight jeans.

Passing on his circuit, Clint ducked his head down to the prisoner's level. "Gee, that looks uncomfortable," he commented, giving the free leg an extra tug as he passed.

"You can't do this! I have rights. Where's Captain America?" Garth demanded. "He'd never stand for something illegal like this."

Natasha took out a cellphone and turned it so the prisoner could see a surveillance photo of Steve sprawled on the sidewalk with the dart in his hand. Garth lay unconscious beside him.

"That is Captain America," Natasha said. "He's in the hospital, maybe dying, because of your 'prank,'" Natasha snarled. "We're waiting for a call to find out whether he lives or dies."

"If he dies, there will be no more Mr. Nice God. Your ass will belong to Black Widow," Tony said with satisfaction.

Natasha ran the tip of her knife along Garth's shirt. The razor-sharp blade split the fibers with no effort at all.

"Black Widow really likes Cap," Clint hissed in the prisoner's ear, as he passed again, circling behind him like a shark in the water. "I'd hate to be you if she got bad news."

Natasha's phone rang. She gave Garth a very nasty smile. "Time's up!"

"No, wait!" Still upside down, the man pleaded to tell what he knew, trying to ameliorate the bad news.

Behind the prisoner, Clint smirked and put away his phone. Coming forward he warned, "You'd better tell the truth. We work for a shadowy, quasi-governmental agency. We can send you places that make Gitmo look like a church summer camp."

He slapped Garth in the back, a pseudo friendly gesture that made the man cry out and swing in Thor's unyielding grip.

"OK, OK," Garth said. "I don't know much, but I'll tell you everything I know."

Natasha put her phone away. The fake call had done its job. "No change," she told the others mendaciously. "Lucky for you," she told the prisoner ominously.

The man gulped and began to talk.

He knew enough to let Tony trace the emails Garth had received arranging the flash mob. The caller had hidden his tracks well, bouncing the messages from server to server, but he hadn't counted on Tony Stark and Jarvis. Unfortunately they found his phone was a burner that had been trampled during the attack on Pepper.

"We need to look at the records for that phone," Natasha said, but Jarvis interrupted. "Sir, I've discovered an anomaly in the surveillance videos from the scenes."

"Thor, can you keep an eye on him?"

"Of course," the thunder god said without lowering his brawny arm.

"And I think you can put him down now," Natasha suggested.

"Please?" said Garth, whose face was turning purple.

"Very well." Thor opened his hand. Garth crashed to the floor, rolling over his shoulder to land flat on his back. He blinked up at the Asgardian who looked as tall as Mt. Rushmore from there, and as stone-faced.

"Don't move," Clint told Garth.

"No problem."

* * *

Tony and the two spies went to a screen in the other room. "Put it up, J."

One after another, six close-up photos came up on the screen. They showed one face from different angles.

"What are we looking at?" Natasha asked, puzzled.

"Why is this guy important?" Clint asked.

"Because he was at every crime scene," Jarvis replied. The cameras pulled back and the Avengers could see each man wore different clothes and the backgrounds were different.

"Wait, the attacks were at the same time, weren't they?"

"Indeed, Agent Barton." Jarvis brought up the time stamps on the photos. All were within half an hour of each other. Two were scarcely a minute apart.

"That's impossible," Natasha said flatly.

"Says the woman who was fighting aliens alongside a recently thawed WWII veteran and an Asgardian god," Clint said dryly.

"So what are we looking at, J? Time travel? Clones? Sextuplets?" Tony asked matter-of-factly, though his companions regarded him very oddly.

"I'd start with disguise or plastic surgery," Natasha said dryly.

"Magic," Clint said darkly, remembering Loki's doppelgangers.

"J?"

"I believe we can eliminate time travel, sir. There are no signs of temporal anomalies. Close analysis of the images shows no evidence of disguise or plastic surgery, Agent Romanoff. The men appear to be identical with small variations such as a scratch on a hand or five o'clock shadow. Sextuplets or clones would be possible but the birth of six identical baby boys would be world news."

"So, clones," Tony said.

"That would seem most probable, sir. Though whether the clones are a product of science or magic, I lack the data to say."

* * *

_A/N: Yes, things are going to get weirder before they get better. _

_So, my faithful Five-0 followers, do you think McGarrett possibly influenced this chapter?_


	5. Recognition

_A/N: The investigation continues._

**Chapter 5: Recognition**

"Have you run facial recognition on the clones," Natasha said.

"It is running as we speak, Agent Romanoff."

"Even with Jarvis' power, it takes time to run through every face on the planet," Tony defended his creation. "Start with scientists known for cloning — and with known sorcerers," Tony instructed.

"Narrowing parameters," Jarvis agreed. A picture of Loki, the only cloning sorcerer in Jarvis' database, flashed on the screen. Clint watched impassively. Natasha put her hand on his arm and he covered it with his other hand. Their fingers twined and some of the tension left the archer's shoulders.

The image flipped past with merciful swiftness, followed by images of other men passing so quickly the human eye couldn't follow, then it stopped — on a woman's face.

"Not a match, J," Tony said, while Clint snickered.

"On the contrary, sir," Jarvis said. He brought the two faces up side by side and pointed out the similarities. "Seventy percent match. I would hypothesize a familial match."

The scientist, Lupe Teresa Santos, had no known children but did have a brother, Emilio, who had worked with her for many years. He was a botanist.

"A South American botanist?" Clint mused. "Curare is made from the root of a South American plant."

"Know a lot about curare, birdbrain?"

"It is an arrow poison, Stark."

"Point," Tony agreed and punned simultaneously (because he's awesome like that). "No photo of Emilio, J?"

"Not yet, sir. Dr. Emilio Santos seems to have been extraordinarily camera shy. His sister has attended all the conferences and published all the papers on cloning. Photo located. I'm afraid it's old," the computer apologized.

The college newspaper photo showed Santos speaking as valedictorian at his graduation. Though the man was much younger, it was obviously the face in the attack photos.

"I will endeavor to find a more recent photo," the AI said.

While Jarvis expanded his search for a photo, Natasha read the information about the Santos siblings. "They began looking at cloning as a method of reforesting damaged rainforest habitat. They lost their funding when they began to show extremist views, blaming the U.S. for habitat destruction," she told the others. "Their views did not go over well in their native country, but they are believed to have moved to Panaguay."

"Where anti-American views are encouraged by the government," Clint said. The SHIELD agent was quite familiar with countries that were "anti" other countries.

"That might explain the choice of victims," Tony said, finding it hard to talk about Pepper in that light. "I know Pep, Phoebe and Carl have supported building factories in South America to bring work to poverty-stricken areas."

"Build a factory, destroy habitat," Clint said.

"Everything SI's been involved in has used land already destroyed by slash-and-burn agriculture," Tony said firmly.

"But a fanatic might not see it that way," Natasha pointed out.

"So we have a motive. Does that get us any closer to our cloned eco-terrorist?" Clint asked.

"He — they — have to be here somewhere," Natasha said. "It's only been a couple of hours. They couldn't have gotten very far."

"Our pathetic foe believes he may know something," Thor announced, as he carried Garth in by the scruff of his neck.

"The boss guy — yeah, him!" Garth exclaimed when he saw the image on the screen. "The flash mob had a meeting this morning. He got a call from his boss. I mean, I don't speak much Spanish, but "jefe," that's boss, right? He called someone "jefe" but friendly like, joking." Garth mimicked, "Si, jefe," in light, teasing tones.

"Did you hear a name?"

"I think he called him 'Loopy'," the young man guessed.

Lupe, his sister. His boss.

"When did the call from 'Loopy' come in?" Natasha asked, flipping her knife in the air absentmindedly.

"Um, um, just about 10, because I hadn't had breakfast and I was hoping the meeting would be over soon, so I could eat something before the mob," Garth said hastily.

"OK, that actually helps," Tony said, much to Garth's relief. "Jarvis, we have the number that emailed Garth. Look for incoming calls at 10 a.m."

"There is only one, sir."

"And can you trace the location of the caller?"

Garth held his breath, hoping this phone hadn't also been destroyed.

"The phone is still active, sir," Jarvis reported.

A diagram came up on the screen. It was gibberish to Clint and Natasha and little more than a pretty light show to Thor and Garth, but Tony read the connections easily. The call had been routed through a complicated VOIP pattern.

"You can hide, but not from me," Tony muttered. His finger traced a pattern, back and forth, up and down, as if following Cap's shield as it ricocheted. "Round and round we go and we end up here."

He tapped a spot and an address came up.

"Meet you there," Clint called, as he and Natasha ran for the door.

"Don't start without us," the Black Widow warned.

"Where is this place?" Thor demanded, frustrated.

For Thor's benefit, a map came up, changing to an overhead view — a Thor's eye view of Manhattan.

"Does this help, Mr. Odinsson?"

"Aye. Thank you, wise one."

"What'll we do with you?" Tony mused, looking at Garth.

The young man folded his legs and plopped to the floor. "I'll just sit here quietly and wait until you get back," he suggested.

"That's a plan," Tony agreed. "Jarvis, stop him if he tries to leave."

"With pleasure, sir," Jarvis said with menacing harmonics.

Garth clamped his arms around his knees and tried to not … move … at … all.

**To be continued**


	6. The Antithesis of Stealth

**Chapter 6: The Antithesis of Stealth**

Tony waited, really. He waited long enough for Thor to grasp the route to the Santos' woman's high-rise hideout. He waited long enough for the SHIELD agents to reach the address. Then he blasted across town faster than Clint and Natasha could reach the top floor and blew a hole in the wall for his grand entry.

But the Santos siblings plus five did know that Pepper Potts was connected to Tony Stark. They were ready for Iron Man. When Stark blasted through the wall, the Santos' blasted back with a sonic weapon that reminded him of a concentrated MRI. His suit rang, as if he was trapped in a bell tower. He couldn't hear Jarvis. Hell, he couldn't hear himself think. Warning lights flashed red in front of his eyes.

He staggered on the edge of the hole he'd made and tipped backward toward the drop off. A strong hand caught his back and pushed him into the room while lightning flashed past, mercifully silencing the infernal clanging, as well as shorting out the lights, crashing the computers and causing the electronic locks to pop open.

They might have been ready for Iron Man, but apparently they weren't ready for the rest of the Avengers.

As Thor charged past, the outer door swung open. Tony's hazy vision could see Clint, aiming an arrow, guarding Natasha who was down on one knee with an as-yet-unopened toolkit in her hands.

"Well, that saves picking the lock," Clint commented. "I told you we'd beat him if we blasted it open."

"I thought stealth might be useful," Natasha answered, slipping the toolkit in its pocket and pulling her pistol in one smooth movement. "I should have known better." She looked at Iron Man down on one knee and shaking his head. "This is the antithesis of stealth. I told you to wait, Stark," she said severely.

"If you're going to kill me, do it now and put me out of my misery," Tony said, lurching to his feet. "I've got a headache like Big Ben banging in my skull."

A roar came from the other room, loud enough for Tony's half-deafened ears to hear.

Natasha took off in the direction of Thor's bellow. Clint remained on guard until his teammate recovered.

"I'm impressed that you know that Big Ben is the bell," Clint said.

"Hey, genius here," Tony said. He stood more firmly, shaking his head cautiously and seeing his controls come back to green. "Not feeling so bright right now, however," he admitted.

From down the hall, they heard a bombardment from several assault weapons that almost drowned the sharper crack of a handgun. With each crack, an assault weapon died.

Clint counted almost to himself. "Nat, Nat, Nat."

Then an explosion sounded from a few rooms away. It was accompanied by a shout of Asgardian triumph.

"Thor," Clint finished his count. "If you don't hurry up, Natasha and Thor will have all the fun," the archer told Tony.

With a last shake of his head, Iron Man rose on his repulsors. "Right, time to party."

He shot forward with Clint right behind. They raced through two shattered rooms littered with bodies still clutched assault weapons. The corpses that still had faces had the same faces, each with a neat red hole in the center of the forehead.

"Nat, Nat, Nat," Clint counted.

The final corpse was little more than a charred smear on the wall with a couple of shins dangling by threads. "Thor," Clint muttered, giving credit for the kill.

Clint peered at a long piece of metal flattened into the smear. It took a second to reconstruct it in his mind. "Wow, I think that was a rocket launcher. Nice work, Mjolnir!"

The archer hurried on to catch up with Stark who had caught up with Thor. The thunder god tossed his hammer from hand to hand in frustration as he looked at a heavily armored door between him and his prey.

"Why didn't you knock it down?" Iron Man asked as he readied his repulsors.

"Because the Widow is inside," Thor said. "She ran through before the door closed and I fear to hurt her."

Clint's heart clenched in fear for his partner. There were at least two clones unaccounted for, plus Loopy Lupe Santos. "What's inside?" he demanded.

"I caught only a glimpse. It was a laboratory with chemicals and computers and an odd machine like … like the booth where Jane and I took amusing pictures."

Picturing Thor squeezing into one of those little photo booths was too distracting, Tony thought.

"Jarvis, scan the room."

"It is too heavily shielded, sir," the AI reported regretfully.

"Then what can you tell me?" Tony asked.

"I can give you the schematics for the vault door," Jarvis said. "It is a standard Pinnacle Model 724A."

"Right! I bought one for target practice, didn't I?"

"Indeed, sir."

The door swung on two massive hinges, which couldn't be seen from the outside, but Tony marked the locations on the wall while he told the others his plan to make sure the door couldn't hit Natasha inside the room. "On three … One, two, three!"

Hawkeye fired an explosive arrow at the top hinge while Tony hit the lower hinge with his smallest missile. The explosions sounded as one. Then Thor punched his magical war hammer through the vault lock clear up to his elbow. He grabbed the edge of the door and pulled. The Avengers leaped aside, as it fell at their feet.

Inside the laboratory, chaos ruled.


	7. Chaos

**Chapter 7: Chaos**

Natasha had barricaded herself behind a bank of computers, preventing the roomful of enemies from shooting at her. Saving her ammunition for Lupe Santos, who was also well concealed behind computers and equipment, Natasha limited herself to kicking or punching when the clones came close, driving them back and knocking them down, but not doing much damage, because she never had time to finish one off before another attacked.

There were a lot more than two clones in the room — two dozen at least. It was hard to count, the way they were milling around, trying to protect Lupe and her equipment, trying to overwhelm Natasha, running into a back room and coming out with weapons and now turning to prevent the other Avengers from entering.

"What took you guys so long?" Natasha called, unruffled by facing an army of clones on her own.

"We were trying to be polite," Clint returned. "You know, ladies first?"

"I'm willing to share," Natasha offered magnanimously, as she vigorously kicked a clone into the center of the room.

Lupe's fingers flew across a keyboard. Emilio — the original? — stood in an old telephone booth that had been repurposed. It was hooked up to the computers and to clear vats of bubbling chemicals in a variety of colors. Lupe slammed her fist on a button and piercing violet light filled the booth, making the Avengers shade their eyes.

Veiled by the glare, Emilio screamed in agony or ecstasy or both, then the yell became two yells. The light shut off and another clone stumbled from the booth, leaving the original panting and shaking.

"They aren't clones!" Barton spat. "They're fucking photocopies!"

Emilio straightened himself when he saw the Avengers. "Again!" he yelled to his sister in Spanish (which all the Avengers present understood — what Tony didn't understand from his years in California, Jarvis could translate).

"But..." she started in concern.

"Again!" he demanded.

"I love you," she said sadly, and began typing again.

"I smell magic," Thor announced, literally sniffing the air.

Well, that explained why the genius engineer couldn't wrap his mind around the science involved. Fuck it, Tony thought.

"Thor, smash!" he ordered, pointing at the booth.

The Asgardian laughed. "We'll see if I can do as well as our green brother!" He leaped toward the equipment. The clones swarmed to stop him. Black Widow sprang from her cover to join Iron Man and Hawkeye in clearing a path for the Asgardian.

* * *

The clones swarmed over the team brandishing all manner of improvised clubs. Tony's repulsors pushed them back, but even if they slammed against the wall, they just got up and rejoined the fight.

Two clones broke away, charging at Thor's undefended back with heavy metal bookends held high.

"Enough of this," Natasha said. She pulled her gun and fired, at the same moment Clint loosed an arrow at the other man. Because the clones were barely armed, the agents fired to wound. Each clone was hit in the arm that held the weapon and, when punctured, each clone popped like a goo-filled balloon. A drab green slime spattered everywhere and dripped to the floor.

"What the hell?" Clint exclaimed.

"That didn't happen in the other room," Natasha said blankly.

Tony's brain whirred at lightning speed. "The original clones must ... must have been stabilized in some way," he announced. "With the new ones, there wasn't time."

"Works for me," Clint said with a grin. Instead of putting his latest arrow in his bow, he began to stab with it. It was satisfying to see each clone burst at the merest prick. He didn't feel like he was fighting people any more — people didn't pop like that. These were dangerous things.

Natasha kept her gun to defend Thor, and took her knife in her left hand to defend herself.

Tony switched from the ineffective repulsors to the smallest missiles in his epaulets and fired just one over Clint's head into a mass of clones. The burst shattered clones and splashed Clint with slime.

"Ewww ... urk!"

A mass on his chest reformed into a hand and grabbed the archer's throat. He dropped his arrow and grabbed the disembodied hand with both his. The thing was inhumanly strong. Clint's face was turning purple when Iron Man reached him and tore the hand free, then dropped it and stomped it into a smear with his metal boot.

"Let's not ... do that ... again," Clint panted, bent over to clutch his knees.

"Right, bad idea," Tony agreed. He stood guard, giving the archer a moment to steady himself, repaying Clint for his protection earlier.

Natasha saw her partner was OK and breathed a sigh of relief. Carrying knives in both hands now, she whirled through the crowd of clones in something like a combination of a Cossack sword dance and a buzzsaw. She spun and sliced, keeping out of the spatter as best she could. Her path was marked by collapsing clones and then her knife sank deep into one's arm and stuck in bone. It snarled at her.

She'd found the last stabilized clone.

**To Be Continued**

* * *

_A/N: Next chapter, things get even weirder. (Yes. Really.)_


	8. Things Get Even Weirder

_A/N: I promised weirder_

**Chapter 8: Things Get Even Weirder**

For Thor, progressing to the equipment was like wading through a sand dune. For every clone he tossed aside, two more took its place. He couldn't even throw Mjolnir with three clones clinging to his arm.

Then — pop, pop, pop — arrows punctured the hindering trio. Thor prepared to throw his hammer. Another clone leaped to grab it, but one was not enough to impede the thunder god. Thor let Mjolnir fly, with a clone trailing behind, clinging to the handle.

The hammer smashed the equipment above Emilio, just as the violet light flared into a violent explosion. Vats shattered and their contents poured down, dousing the booth and it's occupant in a flood of chemicals.

Glass and metal shrapnel flew everywhere. Clones dissolved into sickening puddles. Thor threw up his arms to protect his face, grunting stoically at the many minor wounds.

Iron Man stepped in front of Clint, letting the shards rattle of his armor. Natasha dodged behind her foe, which was distracted for a bare instant. Long enough for the Widow to pull her gun and put two bullets in the clone's brain. It dropped in the slime that coated the floor.

Lupe screamed in denial. The Avengers regrouped near the door. Only a few clones remained to block their way to the scientist.

Then, from out of the sparking, bubbling, foaming phone booth, came a roar of triumph. And a monster burst forth.

Twice the height of Thor, it was a misshapen manlike form, a half melted and dripping bipedal candle with Emilio's face. Lupe cried out in joy and ran to hug the creature, which pulled her close to defend her. Simple surprise crossed the woman's face followed by horrified shock and pain as her human body began to melt into the slimy clone thing that had been her brother.

The Avengers stared, aghast.

Lupe screamed, then her expression turned into manic glee as she and her beloved brother were joined. The two-headed monster laughed, hugging itself in delight, then it faced the Avengers with malice gleaming in all four eyes.

"Capitalist tools!" Lupe spat.

Tony flipped up his faceplate. "Oh, please! I'm no tool. I'm the capitalist," the billionaire bragged.

"Yeah, and Prince Thor is a monarchist," Clint pointed out helpfully. "Wacko eco-terrorist mad scientists should get their facts straight."

Emilio snarled. Lupe laughed. "I see your leader did not join you," she smirked. "Could he not face the people he has oppressed or is it true that instead of killing the Potts bitch, we snared a bigger prize and killed Captain America?"

Iron Man's metal fingers bunched in angry fists, but Natasha just buffed her fingernails on her shoulder in a mocking show of unconcern. "Neither. Cap stayed with Ms. Potts. He is not dead and he's certainly not afraid of you," the weight of scorn in the last word was as heavy as the Statue of Liberty.

Clint admired the masterful lie. It was totally true, but it implied Steve was protecting Pepper instead of lying on a hospital bed.

Thor felt a current curl around his feet, as if he was standing in a river. He looked down and saw the splattered remains of the clones flowing toward the monster, adding to its bulk and heights.

"'Ware!" he shouted. "It grows!"

The thunder god's feet were yanked out from beneath him as the gooey undertow formed fingers and grabbed his legs.

From out of the puddles around them, grabbing hands reached for all the Avengers.

Iron Man launched into the air. He reached for Clint and Natasha, pulling them to safety with sick, sucking sounds. He deposited them out of reach on top of Natasha's computer barricade and went for Thor. The Asgardian flailed right and left with his hammer, but it had as little effect as striking the tide. He snarled and threw Mjolnir straight up, smashing a vast hole in the ceiling. Concrete tumbled down, pummeling the monster, disrupting the goopy flow and threatening to flatten Thor himself. Iron Man hovered above his friend, serving as a metal umbrella, then had to dodge away when Mjolnir returned to the Asgardian's hands.

The monster roared in a two-note bellow, then stomped forward to stomp Thor.

Clint shot arrow after arrow into the monster and Natasha emptied two guns, but this creature did not dissolve when punctured. Despite leaking holes and the appearance of a pincushion, it continued toward Thor, who had struggled to his feet.

"Back, Man of Iron," Thor warned. He raised his hammer and called lightning from the heavens. Through the roof opening it flashed, striking the monster and all the glop around it. The creature wailed in pain, but did not seem greatly injured.

Iron Man fired mini-missiles. They blasted pieces off, but the slime just joined the river back to the creature. Nothing stopped its advance.

**To Be Continued, the author said with an evil chuckle.**

_A/N: Big finale next time._


	9. Downfall by DownPour

_A/N: OK, big finale and then some Steve._

* * *

**Chapter 9: Downfall by Downpour**

In frustration, Iron Man began to throw things at the monster — a computer bank, a desk, a water cooler.

The water washed down the creature's flank, diluting the muck, washing a clean spot in the goo on the floor. The sharp-eyed spies saw it. Iron Man's sensors saw it.

"Thor!" they shouted together.

"Forget the lightning, make it rain," ordered Tony, who always talked faster than anyone else.

Wind whipped in a prelude to the storm.

"Stark, what if it gets into the water supply?" Natasha shouted in concern.

Jarvis supplied the answer and Tony pointed at a drain in the floor. "It's a holding tank to contain any scientific waste. We'll catch Lupe with her own proper laboratory procedures!"

A crack of thunder made their ears ring and a downpour dropped through the hole in the ceiling like a waterfall. The monster wailed and flinched away from the drenching, but had its back against the wall. Another stream of water joined the deluge. Clint hit the monster dead on with the fire hose. He played the stream, hosing off the floor, washing the dissolving slime toward the drain.

The monster dwindled, split in two and collapsed. Thor let the downpour diminish to a drizzle. Clint cut off the hose.

Two naked bodies, one male, one female, lay motionless on the floor. Natasha cautiously advanced to check for signs of life, while Jarvis' scanners did the same. They determined that two naked and lifeless bodies lay on the floor. Lupe Santos and her brother Emilio lay hand-in-hand. No, Hawkeye realized, their hands were merged. They were united in death, as they had been in insanity, Clint thought without sympathy. United by perverted, villainous science.

"That's what I call cleaning up the bad guys," Clint said cheerfully.

* * *

Soaking wet and beautiful despite it, Natasha called SHIELD. "Cleanup and containment is already here," she told the others with a quirk of a smile. "Something about a highly localized thunderstorm tipped them off to our presence."

With the battle done, Tony was antsy to leave. He fidgeted, which looked really odd on Iron Man.

"Go to your woman and our captain," Thor said. "We will remain on guard."

"Right, we've got this, Stark," Clint said.

Natasha nodded. "Keep us informed," she said. They knew that meant, "tell us how Steve is."

"Thanks, guys," Tony said, and shot away through the convenient hole in the roof.

* * *

Tony persuaded Pepper to go to sleep only by promising to stay until Steve woke up. He sat with his sleeping girlfriend on one side and his sleeping captain on the other. He rubbed his eyes and wished he could sleep, too. It had been a long, strange day.

He tuned in a baseball game on his tablet. Anything to stay awake. It was 2 a.m. when Steve spoke.

"'Zat a joke?" he slurred. His eyes were open. He stretched slowly, as if everything hurt, but he moved.

"What joke?" Tony asked.

"Playing a Dodger game on the radio," Steve answered. "S'what SHIELD tried when I first woke up."

"Ah, no, not a joke. The Dodgers went into extra innings on the West Coast. It's the only game still going and I needed something to keep me awake."

Besides, Tony followed the Dodgers because, 1, Steve did and, 2, he had a home in Malibu in Los Angeles County. Those were as good a reason as any to pick a team as your own.

Steve listened, satisfied to hear Vin Scully's voice talking about Kemp and Ethier and bobblehead night — certainly not a 1940s ballgame. Tony grumbled about the Dodger relievers. It sounded very familiar, which was soothing. Tony turned his chair and held the tablet where Steve could see the picture.

Pepper opened her eyes when the men gave a smothered cheer at the Dodgers' walk-off home run.

"Hey, you're awake! How do you feel?" she asked Steve.

"Like I battled the Chitauri again all by myself," Steve groaned. "Every muscle hurts."

Bruce came in just in time to hear that. "That's because every muscle was stressed by the rigor — by the stiffness. They're tired because they've been straining for hours. The good news is, your blood work is clear. No more poison."

"Thanks, Bruce, Tony…" Steve's voice was deeply serious. "Pepper, thank you for saving my life."

The CEO looked startled. "I was going to thank you."

Steve shrugged. "Saving people is kinda in my job description," he said with a modest smile. "But it's not in yours. I would have gone insane if I had woken up frozen and all alone." In an earnest voice, Captain America said, "Pepper Potts, you're my hero."

* * *

**The End**

_A/N: What's __really__ weird is that when I started this story, the Dodgers were languishing in last place, so I wrote about them blowing the ballgame, but in just two months, they've turned the season around and shot up to first place in their division. So I changed the ending a little, because you should have a little bit of reality in this most peculiar story._

_More baseball next week in a new chapter of A Very Good Team._


End file.
